Have a MAJOR problem with ground moles here...used a bottle of Mole-Tox recently--but that seems to have them running to other parts of my yard..I've heard that Milky Spore is a good way to rid your property of grubs/moles in the future--but how can I control these pests in the meantime?
Thanks.. ***************************************************************** 06-10-04, 08:18 AM Lydia As long as your yard is inviting for the moles, they will stick around. If you get rid of their food source (grubs and soft insects), they won't want to hang out there as much. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.
One of the things that I hear (I haven't tried it) is to sprinkle human hair around your yard, apparently this is supposed to be "itchy" to them and they won't like being there anymore. Short of cutting off all your own (and family members' hair), stop by your local hair salon and ask them to save some for you.
Another "remedy" that's supposed to work is to mix castor oil and cayenne pepper - supposedly this is an irritant to their skin and they will associate that with your yard and find somewhere else to eat. Mix about 1 oz of castor oil and 1/4 cup of the pepper and thoroughly wet the areas they are in. The site I saw indicates you can add Murphy's Oil Soap to this mixture (by about 1 cup) and it will help the castor oil stick to their skin. Does sound like you'd need alot of castor oil and pepper based on the fact they are moving around your yard.
06-10-04, 12:13 PM DvdGStwrt Moles, gophers, rats, skunks, birds, squirrels, yada, yada, yada (Along with Queen Ann Lace, Dandy-lions and other plants which are called weeds) are all considered pests simply because we do not want them on our "property".
There is a limited list of things that you can do to get rid of any pests:
1. Poison ( Most effective, kills the problem little work needed)
2. Gun (Not as effective, especially in ground critters, you have to sit around waiting and watching for them to peek their little heads out of the ground to blow them off)
3. Traps and moving them to a "new location" (A laughable solution, even if you did trap them where exactly would you take them? your neighbors, the City park? the woodlands?)
What do moles eat? Worms and insects. So try ridding your yard of those. Earth worms are the sign of a healthy lawn, if you kill off those you kill off your lawn. But you won't have a mole problem any more. Half of the insects in your garden are busily defending your plants from invaders, kill enough of them and the invaders will take over (Can't seem to kill off those invaders, hm)
I have heard of some pretty interesting things people have tried to get rid of moles, such as breaking up glass and pouring it into the mole hole (and gopher holes) this supposedly cuts their feet and they can get infections, or can't get out of the hole so die. A bunch of carp to me, since these critters dig I would assume they would dig a new way out.
Oils, and peppers, and soaps and blood and sound emitting devices and lots of other things that take up time, money and in general rarely if ever really work.
Moles (Skunks, opossum, rats, mice, bats, ants, gophers, raccoons, deer, elk, yada, yada, yada) are all part of the food chain. They are doing what their kind have been doing for millions of years.
Man is the intruder, mankind is the one who has recently (over the past ten thousand years) got all out of whack and has decided that he don't want to share the planet with anyone else. This is the problem, The mole is not the problem.
Even using Poison is only a temporary fix, it will kill the guys there at this time, however there are millions of moles in your general area, they breed faster than you imagine and soon enough a new family/colony will come and you will have the problem again. Not only that but enough cases of accidental poisoning takes place each year to make me a little leary about introducing Poison to the ecology, I like my neighbor's dogs and cats and children, I would hate to accidentally take out innocents in "friendly fire".
You can't control them. Sorry.
You should be looking at the problem in another way. Decide what it is that you really want to save. Is it bulbs, a certain tree, or a garden bed? - then find ways to exclude these from the mole territory. It can be a lot of work, but there are methods of excluding areas of your garden from underground and air attack.
We here have gophers, squirrels, and birds (and more) my defenses for my vegetable garden, my bulb garden and a few other spots are designed to barricade the roots and fruits of those from air and subterranean assaults. I have, over the years, Excluded patches of ground with fence wire and chicken wire. I dig out the bed, lay in a box of wire, fill it in and plant my plants in these boxes. Anything I plant outside of these cages are fair game. This is a long term solution which doesn't attack the critters, instead it sets apart bits and pieces of this two acres of land aside with a physical barricade. It is a logical solution which instead of trying to beat a thousand pests by ridding the world of them, I simply but a plant in a cage, Protective Custody works all the time.
I use nets, CDs, garland to protect from the air attacks. Anything unprotected is fair game.
If you are looking for a pretty lawn I have no answer for you. A lawn is a pretty big territory to cage off from the rest of the world, so it returns to the basic kill em as they come. Temporary fixes which include the use of poisons, baits and other things which can, and have been accidentally eaten by dogs, cats and children. A small risk in this war on Nature which I guess is worth the effort. ( I mentioned that twice, it is kind of important to note accidental poisoning is a very real issue with pest control)
Right now I have squirrels dancing on my roof and wild rats in the crawl space beneath my home. I have a backyard filled with gopher tunnels, a dove nesting in a hanging plant pot on the front porch. Yet I still have a wonderful organic garden, a berry patch where I have already gotten a gallon of berries this past week, my tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs bloomed prettily. I coexist with my natural neighbors, I ended the war the war along time ago understanding that they out number me about two billions to one.
Wink
Cheers
David
06-10-04, 06:05 PM kittypal We have a major mole problem here too, my dad sets traps for them (not the live kind either Mad) I don't like the idea of killing them, after all maybe they are pissed we moved into their yard. Anyway, I also heard Juicy Fruit gum can work, they are supossed to eat it and choke on it, another NICE way to rid of them. In the above posts the best solution is to try and rid of the grubs and stuff, but grub-b-gone, that does really seem to lessen the number of moles that come through.
06-12-04, 10:10 AM irishman1952 Guess we should just all kill ourselves and the poor animals will be happy..who's first????
06-12-04, 10:40 PM honilov When I was a kid, I used to love to see the moles moving in the ground. Little did I know, what a problem it was for my parents.
LOL irishman, I think the animals will have to be unhappy a little longer.
I'm only being bothered with pigeons. Mad
06-27-04, 11:16 AM DvdGStwrt
quote:Originally posted by irishman1952: Guess we should just all kill ourselves and the poor animals will be happy..who's first????
Instead of killing, why don't we find ways to live together instead, Is sharing such an alien concept that we can't do it?
No, we do not have to open our doors to every critter that walks by and let them live in our nests (houses) but we can modify the way we do things a little, thus providing for them as well as ourselves.
07-11-04, 10:46 AM soaringhorse I beg to differ David, these guys moved in when the construction guys poured very poor soil in the crater holes that they dug in my yard, (25 ft. deep by 50 ft. wide.) This is ridiculous, I have so many mole patterns that they are going under my house even, I can't believe the damage that is being done to my yard, the ground is caving in where they have dug, and I'm sinking in their little tunnels that are over a 100 ft. long. Not only is my grass being ripped out but my yard is beginning to look like a jigsaw puzzle, not to mention what it's going to do the house, if the foundation sinks. Do you think that will happen?
07-11-04, 02:06 PM FredPuli Ground moles? You mean you can get flying ones over there? Blimey. That's all you need; something the size of a rat flying and being almost totally blind. Streuth ! Still those should be easy to catch; hang up a net and they'd fly straight into it, not seeing it was there.
As to our kind here, the subterranean (mostly; they go for a stroll above ground in the mating season ),they do indeed go where the food is. It may be that builders leave poor soil behind but it gets colonised by worms. So the moles ignore it at first but as it gets colonised they go next door into where it is, a whole new food source. They are never going to affect the foundations of a house. The damage they do is mostly cosmetic. If you want a bowling green lawn then moles are a nuisance. Here ( in Newmarket) we are not so fussy;'live and let live' is the motto. Why can't you be as sanguine about it? It's so much easier . (Some people blame drainage dificulties on moles. Some people believe anything; they are probably thinking of coypu and riverbanks, not moles Big Grin )
Anyway (1) there's over five acres here and we really can't be going out with dozens of mole traps to set. We concede that in a small lawn they can be a pain; we do own a couple of traps (and there is still a local mole- catcher to hire if needed )
Thought: Do you have mole-catchers there? Around here they can still, just, find enough to make you a genuine moleskin coat ( not 'moleskin' as in the cotton fabric, but from real skins)
(2) alternative methods are unpleasant and/ or totally ineffectual. You could use chemical to kill the worms. This is, traditionally, lead based but there may be more modern and safer chemical mixtures. It's what greenkeepers at golf courses used to ensure that there were no worm holes and casts on their perfect greens.Of course a side effect may be that the moles or other creatures eat poisoned worms. Mole fuses ( a form of smoke generating firework, that burns slowly ) seem only to provide temporary relief, if any. Noise generators, such as those to keep cats and dogs away but mole adapted, probably don't work at all. There has been both scientific and consumer research doubting the efficacy of noise generators. There is some plant which is supposed to keep moles away if pushed into the runs ( the problem now is a) I can't remember what it is to tell you b) Murphy's Law dictates that it doesn't grow where you are or is not obtainable there Big Grin )
So I'm with Dvd on this one !
07-11-04, 06:53 PM DvdGStwrt Crater Holes? Sheesh - sounds like you got a little more than just moles to worry about.
Hm. No, I seriously doubt they can damage the foundation of a house. You are in snow country, so the foundation goes fairly deep (or should) moles tend to dwell near the surface where all the good stuff is to eat. That is why you can step into their tunnels. Only their dens/nests will go deeper and those are small (less than 24" in diameter and around 24" deep.
Lets back up to the crater holes in your yard filled with soil. What happened to cause you to need soil brought in? If they dug, they would have used the earth they removed from the hole, if they are hauling in earth I have to wonder what was going on in the first place. This makes me wonder if your moles were not imported in that dirt - in that case this becomes a problem for local authorities who will need to investigate where exactly that earth came from.
If you are in the city the local authorities will not be too happy that pests are being brought into the city in this manner - this can lead to an infestation which can lower property values, cause city property damage, law suits, etc. etc. etc. IF this contractor is bringing in dirt that has moles in it, the city may want to put a stop to that ASAP.
In this light I would strongly urge you to call the city or county animal control office (should be a government office). If moles were not a problem before the holes, and are now, then obviously they hijacked in on the dirt. This makes it a whole different kettle of fish, this would mean that the contractor needs to do something about the problem he created. That is if you never had the problem before.
Depending on local laws and codes you may have recourse to having an exterminator come out paid for by the contractor who may have brought them in in the dirt. Or the Animal Control may assess the situation and deem it a real and present threat to the neighborhood and will take care of it themselves.
Contact the Animal control office first, have them come out, explain to them when the moles started appearing especially if this is linked with the holes.
My first post was under the assumption that these critters were part and parcel of the area - not as a secondary issue caused by in part or in whole by another issue. That makes for a different response.
David
07-12-04, 08:28 AM BobLaz I applied Milky Spore (a tedious job) throughout the yard and it seems to have helped--eliminating the moles' food source..thanks for all your input.. Cool
07-12-04, 09:01 PM soaringhorse I purchased a mole trap, a good one, the kind that has the spikes that come down. Problem is, it says to crush in all the soil that has been pushed up and wait twenty four hours, to see if there is any activity. Well, for one it looks like about a dozen tunnels, and two, it has been very rainy so I don't think there's any activity, at least I can't see any. I did set it so we'll see. They are really digging around my trees and bushes, I noticed. David, if you only knew what I have been going thru. This project the sanitation dept began started in January, and has still not been completely finished, they have so many houses involved that they just are tired of everyone complaining because they can't get it right. They pulled up all my good soil, disposed of it in the neighbors yards that they dug holes in too, and yanked out the man hole and the sewer lines in my yard. I was told my house was an emergency dig, due to crushed pipes. They proceeded to fill in with gravel and then a mix of sand and dirt. The finished dirt that was so terrible, it looks like the dirt off of a baseball field. Needless to say the grass seed they threw on there has not come in good, and we have bluegrass, a real pretty dark green. This grass looks like crab grass, really grows weird, hard to cut. Well, needless to say, I'm not a happy camper. Besides the fact my driveway (which I just had put new gravel in) has been ripped up, as well as the rock wall beside it. They never did replace the curb which is about 100 ft. long) saying the water department is coming back in six months so there's no sense in replacing it. So meanwhile I live on a hill with rain draining right into my yard, which I have to worry about blowing out that wall that they didn't put up very good. There are at least 25 houses they have dug up like this, and they have still not got it right. The reasoning for this was to replace all the old sewer lines. But then the water dept is coming in right behind them to replace theirs, I'm about ready to strangle them. It's kind of funny we are the only ones in the town that they are doing this to. But back to the moles, they do crush in the ground pretty bad, leaving deep inpressions, I have 3 cats that are outdoors, and they have caught a total of 3 so far. That means theres a family. I hate to see them killed, but they never used to be here, not until all this digging. I am going to have to complain to the sanitation department, but I'm thinking about taking this to the city.
07-13-04, 02:06 AM DvdGStwrt Take it to the city. All of these issues are not good, this sounds like a nightmare city project which has gotten off track. All of that damage and not being restored is not good business practice.
Call in the Animal Control folks to rid you of the moles. Since the Sanitation Department most likely caused an exodus of the moles who have most likely had their homes completely destroyed and are refugees. They slap you with a bill, slap it on the sanitiation Department, the refuse to pay, go to the Media.
It's time that the whole block takes a trip to City hall, call out the media (news, local news will love a story like that) make a big stink. Trust me, if local news gets a hold of this kind of story they will ask embarrassing questions of the people higher up.
There is no good reason why a sewage issue should take six-seven months to fix and then they leave you with wreck and ruin.
Make it a public problem. Call the media, show them and tell them how long this is going on - Trust me, once the local TV is showing pictures of the wreck and ruin the authorities will get off their politician butts and make it all good - they have too if they want to hold their jobs next election time.
David
07-18-04, 07:40 AM soaringhorse Well, the mole trap didn't work. I guess the cats are my only defense. I kept on checking the trap and nothing has happened. Seems they're smarter than I thought. But there hasn't been any new holes so I guess the cats are scaring them off, hopefully. The advice of going to the city, and having them look at what has happened here is my last alternative. I hate to make waves, but this is not going to go away, the water dept. is coming in a few months and redig for their pipes, so I'm about to tear up city hall, lol. I will have to see what the other neighbors think and see if we can sign a petition, this is getting ridiculous. Thanks all for some good advice.
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